Ancient words and current news: GLC's new pastor combines headlines with bible themes

Jessica Weston City Editor Jessica_Weston9

Friday

Feb 16, 2018 at 12:01 AM

Grace Lutheran Church has a new interim Pastor and he is not wasting any time bringing in fresh ways of looking at the bible. Pastor Ben Unseth pulls from today's headlines, referencing his sermons to hot-button issues such as the #metoo movement and even the upcoming Oscar season.

His next sermon series hopes to use movies to draw people into seeing parallels between popular entertainment and bible stories. In this Unseth takes advantage of the convergence of Oscar season with Lent.

It is typical of Unseth's imaginative approach that he has no problem finding a meaningful connection between the solemnity of Lent and the glitz of Hollywood. According to Unseth, it is all about storytelling.

“Movies do a wonderful job of telling stories,” he said. Unseth added that an aspect of the fragmented and tribal modern culture is that everyone is paying attention to different stories.

His idea is “laying [movie] stories across scriptures” to use current stories to highlight and increase interest in stories in the bible.

“Week by week we will tell part of the story of a movie--without a spoiler--and we will juxtapose that with the scripture that we looking at for the day,” he said.

The idea has reportedly already inspired enthusiasm in younger members of the congregation.

On a similar, more serious, note Unseth is wrapping up a sermon series on Jesus and the #metoo movement. His final sermon on the topic will be this Sunday.

“It's an interesting time to be able to talk about what is going on in our culture,” he said. “When you can bring these ancient words into something that is so current, it is powerful.”

He called the “me too” movement “long overdue” and noted that people have mistreated each other as long as there have been people, with women frequently getting the worse end of the deal.

In an effort to bridge the gap with modern sensibilities, Unseth pulled from the scriptures three instances of Jesus' interactions with women.

“The way I set it up is that for three messages in a row we are looking at Jesus with very close, personal encounters with individual women, one of whom it appears has been abused in multiple relationships,” he said.

His Ash Wednesday sermon was about Jesus pardoning the woman caught in adultery in John 8.

“The guy was let go and the woman was sentenced to death for it. That's not right,” he said in an interview with the Daily Independent Tuesday. The first sermon was on “the throwaway woman” in John 4.

Unseth's final sermon in the series on “The transformed woman” in John 12 will be heard this Sunday.

Unseth brings a long and interesting series of experiences to Grace Lutheran. He called his career “an odd pilgrimage.”

He was raised in the Midwest but moved to Ventura in 2001. He has taught linguistics in Chicago, worked as an editor in Christian publishing in Ventura, and served as a pastor at a church in Ojai. He is married, with five children ranging in age from 16 to 25.

“Grace was looking for an interim pastor,” he said. “Grace was looking for somebody to step in, so here I am in.”Unseth called Ridgecrest “a unique community,” adding that he loves the small-town sense of friendliness and interconnectedness. Not to mention the short commutes.

“I absolutely love Ridgecrest. Ridgecrest has the sense of community that big cities don't even dream about.”He said right away he could tell he was in a special place.

“My first weekend in town was the [BHS homecoming]. I felt like I came to understand Ridgecrest a little bit just walking in the door. The players come out on the field and everyone is carrying an American flag.”

The event, of course, went on to make national news and Tina Marie Haugen's video of the patriotic procession has racked up millions of views to date.

“That was my introduction to Ridgecrest,” Unseth said.

Grace Lutheran Church is located at 502 N. Norma St. Worship gatherings are held Sunday at 8 and 10:45 a.m. and Wednesday at 5:45 p.m.

Grace Care Center provides food and clothing for those in need. Open 9 a.m. – noon on Mondays and Wednesday at the Grace Lutheran campus, look for the green door.

For more information, see http://gracelutheran.org/ or Grace Lutheran's Facebook page.

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